Buffer



Ot. l0, 1933. N. n. EDWARDS BUFFER Filed Nov. 3, 1930 VENTO/e *LAW l l A Tirols/f5l YJ UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE BUFFER Norman I. Edwards, Longueuil, Quebec, Canada, assignor to Franklin Railway Supply Company,

New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application November 3, 1930. Serial No. 492,933

v 2 Claims. (Cl. 213-221) This invention relates to railway draft applivex bufng members 1 and 2, carried by the locoances, particularly to the buffer mechanism used motive frame 3 and tender frame 4, respectively. between vehicles, as between locomotive -and A floating chang block, 4a, is mounted between tender. The buffer device contemplated is of the the buffer members 2 and 1, being carried by the 5 type which employs springs and wedges to keep latter. The locomotive buffer l, and chang block 60 the buffer in forward position. 4a may be of any suitable construction.

I-Ieretofore, in employing this type of mecha- The buffer member 2 is suitably mounted on nism, -certain difiiculties have arisen. For exthe tender frame, as in a pocket 5, with relative ample, some diiculty has been encountered in freedom of movement. This member 2, is wedge applying buffers of this general type to locomoshaped, and a wedge shaped member 6 is mount- 65 tives having narrow vestibule cabs, because the ed behind it, the points of the Wedges being adoverall Width of the mechanism is'too great. jacent and opposed. Other wedges 7, 7 are placed Moreover, it has been found that, in springbetween the members 2 and 6, the points of these held buffers of this type, sudden and abnormal latter wedges being likewise opposed, so that the shocks impose great lateral strain on the mechafour wedges have their points adjacent and the 70 nism, with possibility of rupture, because the inclined faces of each in contact with an inclined springs may become solid under such abnormal face of each of its neighbors. impact and transmit shock to the mechanism in- Holes, extending from base to apex are prostead of absorbing it in themselves. vided in the wedges 7, and a transverse' link mem- The invention aims to overcome these diiculber, 8, passes through them. Helical compres- 75 ties, and has for an object the provision of comsion springs l0, l1, one within the other, are carpact and rugged mechanism, of less width than ried by this bolt and t into recesses 9 in the devices formerly employed, and at the same time, bases of the wedges 7. Abutment discs 12 held more flexible and efficient in action. A further on the member 3 by nuts 8a, retain these springs object is the provision of means allowing compenunder a suitable and adjustable compression, so 80 sation to be made for wear on the contact faces. that they tend to force the wedges 7 inward to- A still further object consists in the provision wards each other. The effect of this is to force of means to prevent the buffer supporting mechthe buffer proper, or wedgevmember 2, forward, anism from receiving the full force of shocks since the rear wedge 6 is in fixed relation to the greater than it can withstand. Finally, the prestender frame 4. 85 ent invention contemplates the provision of a sim- The forward movement of the buffer 2, is limple and convenient form of reaction adjusting ited by the coupling 5a of locomotive and tender, mechanism for the buffer supporting springs, as ordinarily, but should these be uncoupled, a pin well as the provision of a device associated with 13, through slot 14, in the member 2 keeps it from the adjusting mechanism and operable as a safefalling out of the pocket 5. 90 guard to prevent adjustment of the spring force Apertures 15 are provided in the side walls of in such manner as to reduce the spring play or the pocket 5, through which the bolt 8, springs 10 reaction beyond that necessary to absorb normal and 11 and abutment discs 12 project. buiiing shocks. In practice, the various parts of the mechanism How these and other objects and advantages are assembled loosely, the springs 10 and 11 be- 95 which will appear to those skilled in the art ing extended, and the locomotive and tender are are obtained will be clear from the following decoupled. Then the nuts on bolt 8 are tightened, scription of a preferred embodiment of my inwhich forces wedges 7, 7 together, drives the bufvention, together with inspection of the accomfer member 2 forward against the chafing block 4: panying drawing, in which: 4a and thus puts the desired tension on the draw 100 Figure 1 is a plan view of a buffer embodying bar 5a between the vehicles. my invention mounted between tender and loco- In buffers of this type heretofore employed, it motive frames, certain of the parts being shown has happened that the supporting means have in section and others broken away; been stressed under abnormal impact to a point :,0 Figure 2 is a vertical mid section, taken on the at which the springs became solid, under which 105 line 2 2 of Figure 1; and conditions severe shock was imposed on the sup- Figure 3 is a side view of a portion of the tender porting means, damaging or rupturing the same. buffer pocket. To ensure that such situations will not occur, I

Referring now to Figure 1, it will be seen that provide means, such as the anges 2a and 6a on a radial buffer is illustrated, having opposed conthe members 2 and 6 respectively, having their 110 l of any suitable character positively limiting the degree to which the adjusting means may be drawn up. Such means may take the form of a collar on bolt 8, or a fixed pin projecting through it diametrically, or abutment means on the pocket 5 cooperating with disc 12. Any of these devices may be arranged as spring adjustment stops, or, as shown in the drawing, this result may be ob- -tained by the use of a pin 19l fixed in disc 12 and sliding in a slot 18 formed in bolt 8. With this arrangement the disc 12 cannot be drawn up beyond the point at which pin 19 reaches the end of slot 18.

In this connection, it is to be noted that the stop means for the spring adjustment is so arranged that the cooperating flanges 2a and 6a come into action before the compression limit of the springs is reached, even when the nuts 8a are drawn up as far as said stop means will permit.

After wear has occurred in service, 4either in the draw bar mechanism or in the buffer parts, the nuts 8a are loosened on the bolt 8, relieving pressure on springs 10 and 11 and then shims 16 may be inserted behind the member 6, through vertical slots 17 in the rear corners of the pocket 5. To keep the shims from falling out through the slots 17, I propose to terminate these slots a short distance above the level of the bottom of the pocket 5, as clearly shown in Figure 3. The inserted shims will drop down to the bottom of the pocket, and thus be retained in place.

Obviously, variations in some respects may be employed, as, for example substitution of any suitable link member for the bolt 8, or the use of different retaining means in place of the abutment discs 12 and lock nuts 8a.

It will be seen that by the use of the doubleface wedges and inset springs, I am enabled to reduce the width of the device materially, thereby avoiding various objections to buffers of this type heretofore in use. Moreover, since the side wedges and the spring mechanism which holds them are full-floating, shims can be inserted through the slots 17 behind the member 6 without disturbing the functioning of these parts. This makes for longer life of the apparatus.

At thev same time, this buffer with its doubleface wedges, is more flexible and eiicient in action than buffers now commonly used, because a better distribution of forces is obtained. That is, the double-face wedges yield and recover more readily than other mechanisms, since they need travel only a relatively short distance to provide a given cushioning effect, and the double, oppositely inclined faces co-operate to' divide the force. For the same reason, there is less risk of damage due to sudden and violent shocks in service, even though the springs which hold the wedges may be tightly drawn up.

It will be understood that other arrangements may be proposed embodying this principle of the double-face lateral wedge-as for example, the employment of a single lateral wedge having oppositely inclined faceswithout departing from the spirit of this invention.

I claim:

1. In a buffer mechanism of the character described, a bufling element, a wedge interposed between sald element and a normally fixed part of the vehicle, said part and said wedge having complementary inclined or wedge surfaces, a spring acting on said wedge to advance the bufling element away from the vehicle, an adjustable abutment or reaction part between which and said wedge the spring is interposed and acts under compression, abutment means associated with said element and a xed part of the vehicle to limit movement of the element toward the vehicle, and a positive stop limiting adjustment of said reaction part in a direction to increase the spring pressure, the positive stop being constructed to provide against adjustment of said reaction part to a point at which the spring would be completely compressed within the limits of movement of said buillng element as defined by said abutment means.

2. A railway vehicle buffer construction of the character described including a supporting pocket structure mounted at one end of the vehicle and having an opening at its outer side, a bufng del vice adapted .to work or move in said opening, a member bearing against the base of the pocket structure and' having a wedge surface presented toward said device, a wedge interposed between said device and said surface, spring means acting on said wedge and tending to advance said device, and means for removing the pressure or tension of said spring from said wedge, the pocket structure `being provided with a lateral aperture at one side thereof adjacent to its base to provide for insertion of shims behind said member, whereby adjustments to compensate for wear or the like may be made by removing the U53 spring tension or pressure from said wedge and inserting a shim through said aperture behind said member.

NORMAN I. EDWARDS, 

